The Death of Death

I wasn’t sure what to offer you for Easter Sunday, when a story popped into my head. It was something that happened way back in the 70’s, when I was hanging out in an all-night restaurant.

A man entered. He seemed to have a mental health condition. He took a napkin and a pen, and drew the famous equation:“You know what that means?” he asked, smiling.

I looked up from my seventh cup of coffee. “Energy equals matter times the speed of light squared.”

“Ha!” he said. “He knows! But that’s only half of it. It actually is about the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

“How do you figure that?” I asked.

“The only constant in the Universe, according to Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity, is the speed of light. The only constant in corporeal life is death. The speed of light squared is the speed of light times the speed of light. Death squared is death times death. In multiplication, the word “of” is often used as a multiplier. Therefore, we are dealing with the death of death.

“Matter corresponds to the corporeal body. So, matter, times the death of death, equals what? Energy. In other words, everlasting life.

“Are you a Christian?”

“No, I’m not,” I replied.

“You will be,” he said mysteriously, and walked out of the restaurant.

An interesting word of prophecy, as it were – for I eventually did become a Christian (though possibly not as a result of his bizarre analogy.) I could tell you how I became a Christian, in the Spring of 1983, but that would be a theme for a much longer, larger post.

For today, I only want to say that I went running along a strange and merry trail, where no other runners were. A lone rabbit eased up towards me, on the other side of the creek, and surpassed me at amazing velocity.